In an increasingly digital landscape, data security threats have become ubiquitous. Cyberattacks are becoming weapons of global economic warfare, with governments and corporations steadily reporting higher numbers of data breaches, and cybercriminals increasingly targeting law firms, large and small, in an attempt to access clients’ secrets and other sensitive non-public information.

In the context of ever-escalating data breaches, international arbitration is not immune to cyberattacks. One widely reported cyberattack targeted the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague (PCA) in July 2015, while the court was administering a hearing between the Philippines and China over disputed territorial waters in the South China Sea. During that arbitration, a malicious software originating in China targeted the PCA’s website, the Philippines Department of Justice, the law firm representing the Philippines in the arbitration, and anyone visiting a specific page of the PCA devoted to the dispute, allowing the hackers to access classified information.